Monday, March 3, 2014

This year has been designated the "Year of Reading Women", which I hope never will be confused with the "Year of Women Reading". (The placement of that noun matters.)

The project has its own hashtag: #readwomen2014, thanks to writer and illustrator Joanna Walsh, who writes for Berfrois, an excellent online literary-intellectual magazine published in the United Kingdom. As Walsh explains at Berfrois, and as VIDA statistics so unfortunately confirm, critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women leave much to be desired. "It's not whether women are published (because they are) but how they are published," Walsh writes. Indeed!

If you a bookish type, female or male, who stocks your shelves or e-reader with titles followed by the names of men, this is your chance to reset a New Year's goal. Trust me, this is one you can achieve: #readwomen2014.

In the interest of helping you change the ugly numbers (no fair just giving them lip service), and perhaps even prompting you to encourage your friends and colleagues in and outside the industry to rethink the publishing, selling, promotion, and reception given writing by women, I've pulled together some titles that I've read (in a number of instances more than once) and highly recommend. (For this post, I've limited myself to three categories in which I read widely and have restricted my suggestions to 30 writers, one title per writer. I could list scores and scores more. I may periodically add to the lists or offer other categories in subsequent posts.) Doubtless, some of the titles and perhaps more of the names will be unfamiliar. All the better. Be curious!

Keep and share your own lists on social media, write your own reviews, look up information about the writers, and be sure to spread the hashtag.

Poetry (This category includes chapbooks as well as full collections.)